Roundhouse For Sale

The Ocean Shores Community Association (OSCA) is accusing the Byron Shire Council of selling off the heart of Ocean Shores to pay for potholes.

The council yesterday voted almost unanimously to develop the Roundhouse site into a sub-division.

Jan Mangleson from OSCA said the council estimates it will make two million dollars from the sale but the development proposal has not yet been properly costed.

She said the town is now left without the facility it was originally promised.

"Ocean Shores sees the Roundhouse site as the heart of the town, there is no other open space, there is no area where people can come together and just gather to just be a community," Ms Mangleson said.

Ms Mangleson is concerned that fears of council amalgamation are driving the sell-off.

"They (the council) seem to have inherited a very poor financial situation and they feel that the answer is to get every asset that council's got that isn't locked in and sell it off and I think the councillors at the moment are in a pothole mentality," she said.

But the mayor of the Byron Shire said it wasn't an easy decision for him.

Simon Richardson said he has to make decisions which are in the best interests of the whole shire.

"Ultimately a council is responsible for the entire shire.

"We are also responsible for the ongoing financial sustainability of the shire and so it was a clear requirement for our council to be financially responsible it was really the only thing left open to us so it is with a heavy heart that I voted against the community and cultural centre but I think it was the financially mature and responsible one," Cr Richardson said.